CENTRAL PLACE THEORY

• Central place is a settlement which provides

one or more services for the population living
around it.
• The theory is concerned with two basic
concepts
 Threshold
 Range of good and services
• Threshold
• The minimum population that is required to
support the provision of certain goods and
services.
• Range is the maximum distance consumers
are prepared to travel to acquire goods - at
some point the cost or inconvenience will
outweigh the need for the good.
 This central place theory is applicable in
Dodoma municipality in enhancing
urbanization because of the following
factors

• The larger the settlements are in size, the fewer

in number they will be, for example there are
many small villages, but only one town that is
Dodoma municipal, hence around Dodoma
municipal there are many villages that maximize
market needed to bring about selling of particular
goods and services like maize, vegetables,
• The larger the settlements grow in size, the
greater the distance between them, for
example villages are usually found close
together, while cities are spaced much further
apart like in Dodoma municipal it starts to
enhance urbanization because of this factor that
villages are close together and hence population
increases in Dodoma town, for example Miyuji
with Nkuhungu are closely villages
• As a settlement increases in size, the number
of higher-order services will also increase, for
example a greater degree of specialization
occurs in the services. The higher the order of
the goods and services, the larger the range of
the goods and services, the longer the
distance people is willing to travel to acquire
them.
 the followings are the k values that can
influence urbanization in a certain place
like Dodoma Municipal
K = 3 Marketing principle, According to the
marketing principle K = 3, the market area of a
higher-order place occupies 1/3rd of the market
area of each of the consecutive lower size place
which lies on its neighbor, like Dodoma
Municipal the lower size nodes are located at
the corner of a largest hexagon around the high
order settlement
K = 4 Transport/Traffic principle, According to K
= 4 transport principle, the market area of a
higher-order place includes a half of the market
area of each of the six neighboring lower order
places, as they are located on the edges of
hexagons around the high order settlements.
K = 7 Administrative principle, According to K =
7 administrative principle (or political-social
principle), settlements are nested according to
sevens. The market areas of the smaller
settlements are completely enclosed within the
market area of the larger settlement.